Tell Nobody by Patricia Gibney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This wasn’t my favourite in the series for a couple of reasons. The first is that the formula is just too tired by the fifth instalment I felt.
Lottie is a well-portrayed single mother, and I like her work ethic and that those around her respect that work ethic. However, she does receive a lot of help from her mother to achieve this, and is so completely ungrateful for that help that it’s a little grating. I understand having issues with you parents (I have many), but when they are the reason you can have the job that you do – and a roof over your head, there’s a little part of me that thinks she could be a little kinder.
I’ve always enjoyed the POV changes in this series, but in this particular story, there were a few too many terrible chapter endings for some characters. I’ve never been a fan of exclamation marks – and there were so many at the ends of chapters. This may have been that she didn’t quite capture the mind of a pre-teen boy very well, and so that was extra-hard to read.
The mystery itself was good, as always. The way she reveals information keeps the story interesting and fast-paced. In this instance, I nearly guessed the ending – which I love as well in a crime novel, I like that the story was told well enough that you could have guessed. It’s satisfying knowing that there is an ending where you could get it right if you follow all the clues, I’m not a big fan of endings that come out of nowhere and there’s no way anyone could have guessed what was coming.
The interactions between the characters is fantastic, and I like the dialogue that is exchanged in the office.
There was a lot to like, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the others.
Ally Jane 